A Valuable Man
by Zanza8
Summary: Ronon learns about McKay. Set immediately after Epiphany, where I think Ronon was pretty mean to McKay. No Teyla-I wanted the boys to work things out on their own. And no slash.
1. Chapter 1

Sheppard frowned as McKay came into the cafeteria, caught sight of him and Ronon sitting together, and turned and walked out without getting any food. Something had been wrong ever since they returned from the planet with the ascension sanctuary, but he couldn't get a handle on it. He wished Teyla was here but she had left for the mainland to spend some time with her people and McKay wasn't talking. Or rather, he was talking, but it was all complicated explanations of how a time dilation field worked. Sheppard understood how six months had passed for him while only a few hours went by for his team and he didn't need any more information about it. He was just happy to be home, and the team was happy to have him back. So why the tension between Ronon and McKay?

The colonel sighed. There was no point in asking McKay again. He would just rattle off another long speech about quantum mechanics and rush off to his lab. Maybe Ronon would be more forthcoming. "Want to spar?"

"Sure."


	2. Chapter 2

Sheppard and Ronon faced off, circling each other, their eyes alert for an opening. The colonel feinted to one side and moved in and the Satedan blocked him with a combination of moves that left him flat on his back, gasping from the force with which he had hit the floor. Ronon grinned and offered him a hand, pulling him easily to his feet, and the circling began again.

Sheppard threw a punch, Ronon ducked under it and kicked out, and the colonel barely avoided it. He knew Ronon was not the type to respond to an indirect approach and asked straight out, "So what's up with you and McKay?"

Ronon's eyes widened, then he crouched, ready for another attack. "Nothing."

Sheppard dropped and tried to sweep Ronon's legs out from under him. It felt like trying to knock over an elephant and he bounced to his feet. "Doesn't look like nothing to me."

"Ask McKay."

"I did. Now I'm asking you." Sheppard got in a good hit, drawing a grunt of appreciation from Ronon.

"Look, Sheppard, he's _your_ friend. As long as you want him on the team, that's good enough for me."

They grappled, trying to throw each other, then broke free and backed off. Sheppard panted, "That's not good enough for me."

Ronon thought of the first time he had seen McKay, hanging upside down and about to be shot by Ford. He hadn't been impressed by the scientist that day, and events that had occurred since he came to Atlantis had not raised McKay in his estimation. When they had been trapped on the prison island, the scientist had been almost no help at all. Ronon had heard all about the destroyed solar system, which seemed inevitable considering how McKay thought he could do anything. He hadn't helped much with that village terrorized by a Wraith, or done anything for Sheppard when he was infected with that weird bug virus. The only time Ronon had seen McKay do anything useful was when he went into a stasis pod to help Sheppard on the Ancient ship. Figures he'd find something to do where he was just laying down. It was true the man had escaped all by himself from Ford's men, but he couldn't even manage that without taking a huge dose of Wraith enzyme. "All McKay does is brag and complain and he's too soft to back you up in a fight."

Sheppard's face became very still. "Anything else?"

"Yeah." Ronon hadn't intended to say anything but now that he had started he was going to say it all. "I could have pulled you back from that forcefield but McKay told me to let you go. Then he ran around sticking branches through it and yelling at Teyla and me to throw all our stuff in the cave instead of trying to help you. He's a coward."

Ronon was shocked when Sheppard came at him, slamming him into the wall. The colonel's eyes had flattened, like a predator spotting its next meal, and when he spoke, his voice was very soft. "If it wasn't for McKay, I would have died of old age behind that forcefield. I owe him my life more times than I care to remember." Sheppard dropped his hands and took a step back. "You don't have to like him, but if you expect to stay on my team, you'd better realize how important he is, to me and everybody here on Atlantis." He turned to walk out the door, pausing for a parting shot. "And don't _ever_ call him a coward again."


	3. Chapter 3

Sheppard stalked down the hall, seething. He knew Ronon and McKay hadn't hit it off, but was it really this bad? What kind of a leader was he, not to see trouble brewing between two members of his own team? And could he keep the team together at this point, knowing how Ronon felt? He liked the big Satedan, but if he had to choose between Ronon and McKay, Sheppard would keep McKay even if it meant Ronon left Atlantis. And he didn't want that kind of rift.

He went into his quarters and opened a beer, then lay on his bed, closing his eyes and thinking back to what information Teyla gave him after the debriefing when they got back to Atlantis. Sheppard had noticed Ronon was more taciturn than usual, not even giving one word answers where a nod or a shake of the head would do, while McKay was incredibly talkative about the scientific aspects of the rescue without saying anything about how brilliant he had been. And he _had_ been brilliant. He blamed himself for not reading the Ancient sign or noticing the memory on the camera, but they had all been caught up in the thrill of their discovery and they were all equally responsible for the accident that left Sheppard stranded. It was McKay who first recognized the seriousness of the situation and focused on saving Sheppard, and it was McKay who came up with a plan to rescue the colonel. In the end it was the Ancients who let them go, but Sheppard had complete confidence that the scientist would have brought him home. He frowned, remembering Teyla's soft voice.

 _"You want to tell me what's wrong with Ronon?"_

 _"He is just angry, John. You know Ronon is a warrior, not a scientist, and how helpless he feels when there is danger and no enemy to fight. I think…" Teyla paused, then went on delicately. "Ronon seems to think Rodney was not concerned enough about your situation."_

 _Sheppard's eyes narrowed. "Is that what you think?"_

 _"Not at all." Teyla paused, then went on slowly. "I did not understand what was happening any more than Ronon, but I have been with you and Rodney much longer than Ronon has. I have seen how Rodney reacts to pressure many times. I know how courageous he is, and I also know how close you and he are. If the only way Rodney could save your life was by sacrificing his own, he would do so without hesitation. Ronon does not know this. He saw you in danger that was beyond his understanding, and Rodney reacting as Rodney does in such situations, and he did not react very well himself. He was...rather hard on Rodney."_

Sheppard pressed for details, but Teyla refused to say any more, insisting that Ronon and McKay had the right to speak for themselves. Well, he had tried to hear what they had to say and neither one was talking. He was completely unsure what to do next. Should he bring them together and confront them both or wait and hope they worked it out on their own? If only Teyla would take over, he was sure she could reconcile them but he knew that she would never agree to deal with this problem. He was the team leader and it was his responsibility.

"Colonel Sheppard, please respond."

It was Weir and he tapped his earpiece. "Go ahead, Elizabeth."

"I'd like a word in my office."

"Copy that." Sheppard picked up his beer and gulped it down, then went into the bathroom and sluiced his face with cold water. He could hear Elizabeth requesting McKay and Ronon as well and there was a knot in his stomach as he contemplated the possibility that she had noticed the trouble on his team and decided to resolve it herself.


	4. Chapter 4

Sheppard walked into Weir's office, noting Rodney and Ronon in chairs on the opposite sides of the room, studiously avoiding each other's eyes. Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at him as he sat down across from her and he shrugged. She nodded slightly and looked down at an open folder on her desk. "I have a request for Rodney from the people of Jad Bal Ja. They want you to evaluate some Ancient technology they've discovered." She smiled as the scientist sat forward in his seat, his eyes bright with interest. "They didn't give me any details, other than asking for you specifically. It seems they've heard of your reputation."

"You mean like blowing up three fourths of a solar system?" Sheppard grinned.

"It was five sixths and it was an accident. How long are you going to ride me about that?" snapped McKay.

Ronon's face was expressionless as he asked, "When do they want McKay?"

"Whenever is convenient."

McKay stood up. "Now would be very convenient."

Weir chuckled. "In that case, you have a go. John, I'd like you and Ronon to tag along. I know it doesn't sound very interesting, but…"

"...but we've seen things go sideways pretty fast before." The colonel nodded. "All right, gear up. We'll meet at the gate in half an hour."

Ronon and McKay returned to the gate room within the specified time, still avoiding each other's eyes, and Sheppard felt a moment's apprehension. Was it really a good idea to take them offworld together when they were so at odds? He debated telling Ronon to stay behind, then thought perhaps it would help to go on a mission like this, more of a field trip really. No Wraith, no Genii, not even a recon of possibly hostile territory. The people of Jad Bal Ja were friendly and had a firm trade agreement with the Atlanteans and he always enjoyed visiting them. Maybe an easy trip like this was just what they needed to get them back on track.

The village elder Pallas was waiting as the three Atlanteans came through the stargate, greeting them with a big smile. "Colonel Sheppard! It was good of you to come so soon and to bring Dr McKay. And Ronon." He bowed and the visitors bowed back. "Dr McKay, I think you're going to be very excited at what we have found."


	5. Chapter 5

The room was huge, with a number of tables littered with artifacts obviously Ancient in design, the most intriguing of which was a metal box with a kind of Ancient computer set up next to it. McKay immediately devoted his full attention to the keyboard, trying to open an interface.

Pallas stood near the door with Sheppard and Ronon. "It was the most amazing thing. We were digging a new well and broke through into this underground room. I had no idea what it was, of course, but it looks like something the Ancestors would build, doesn't it?"

"I'd say so." Sheppard went over to McKay. "Any ideas?"

"Hmmm?" McKay looked up. "Oh, it's you. I might be able to figure something out if I didn't have to keep stopping to answer questions."

Sheppard shrugged and turned away, his hand brushing the keyboard, and it sprang to life. McKay huffed in annoyance. "Oh, sure, it won't work for me but let Mr Super Ancient Gene touch it and it sits up and begs." His fingers moved rapidly over the keyboard and he frowned as a display came up.

Sheppard peered at the holographic screen. "My Ancient's a little rusty."

"It looks like…" McKay scrolled rapidly through the display. "They were working on a biological weapon to contain the Wraith. They chose this planet because it was uninhabited…"

"We have lived here for thousands of years," Pallas interjected.

"Yes, well, this lab is well over ten thousand years old," said McKay crankily. "And it was sealed long before your people came to this world."

"Sealed?" Sheppard felt a chill. "That doesn't sound good."

"Oh, no." McKay was staring in horror at the screen.

Ronon had been standing by the door, feeling as useless as he always did in these kinds of situations, and now he came over. "What is it?"

McKay swallowed hard, pointing at the metal box. "They developed a toxin that they hoped would kill the Wraith. The idea was to have it affect only the Wraith, but…" He paused, scrolling through several more screens.

Sheppard gritted his teeth. "McKay."

"Just a minute." The scientist finished the last screen. "It killed everything. I mean _everything_. It spread out of control after an accident with a technician, then killed all the Wraith test subjects and most of the life on this planet. They finally managed to eradicate it and contain the last of it in that box."

"Why didn't they just destroy it?" asked Ronon.

"It says here they were ordered to, but the scientist who developed it wanted to preserve it. I guess after all the work he put into creating it, he just couldn't bring himself to kill it. He sealed the lab, intending to return and complete his work. He thought he could render it less universally lethal, but he never returned."

Sheppard bit his lip. "Why?"

"Did you just hear me say he never returned?" McKay waved a hand at the display. "These are his notes documenting what happened _before_ the lab was sealed. Once he left, he didn't come back to enter any new data. I'm sure if he had known you would want to know, he would have been considerate enough to leave his diary for the rest of his life laying around."

"Okay, that's it." Sheppard jerked a thumb at the door. "We're leaving and we're sealing this place again. Pallas, get moving. Tell your people they need to steer clear of this area." The elder nodded and hurried out.

"Sheppard." McKay was staring at the monitor, his face ashen.

"What is it?"

"The toxin is growing."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know!" McKay all but wrung his hands. "This is more in Beckett's line. I don't know the first thing about microbes and germs and...and toxins that can kill a whole world…it's possible when the computer activated, it started the growth of the toxin again."

"That box will hold it, right?"

"I have no idea!" McKay's fingers flew over the keyboard. "Wait a minute. It says here there's a self-destruct, in case the toxin reached critical levels."

"Great. So trigger the self-destruct and we'll get out of here." McKay didn't respond for a moment, intent on the screen. "We're kind of on the clock here, Rodney."

"I realize that!" The scientist took a deep breath. "The automatic self-destruct isn't working. It'll have to be triggered manually."

"I'll do it," said Sheppard decisively. "Ronon, take McKay and get out of here."

The scientist laughed shakily. "Not this time, John. The toxin was designed to be incredibly tough and resilient. If the explosion is triggered while it's still so small, it'll shrink back down to a spore-like organism to protect itself. It will go dormant again but it won't die. And if it grows beyond a certain point, the explosion won't kill all of it. Some of it will be scattered, and if even a small amount escapes, it could still wipe out all life on this planet. The automatic self-destruct was programmed with complex equations to measure the growth rate and correlate it to the detonation to achieve total destruction. I can do those equations manually, but you can't."

Ronon was so irritated he wanted to hit McKay, and judging by the look on Sheppard's face, he felt the same way. The colonel shouted, "This is no time for your ego!"

"It's not ego!" McKay shouted back. He stood up and his voice softened. "Look, you're definitely smart enough to learn the equations, but it would take hours for me to teach them to you."

Sheppard swallowed hard. "How much time have we got?"

"Minutes."

The colonel froze. A small rational corner of his mind urged him calmly to say goodbye to his friend and walk away but he just couldn't seem to move. McKay was telling him it was okay, saying he needed to leave, but he stood there, staring at the scientist, and finally McKay looked pleadingly at Ronon.

The big Satedan moved in. "Sheppard." He touched the colonel on the shoulder and Sheppard pulled away as if he had been burned. Ronon's jaw tightened and he grabbed Sheppard and spun him around, administering one precise blow that knocked the colonel out before he even saw it coming. He started to fall and Ronon caught him and slung him over his shoulder.

" _Thank_ you," said McKay. "Now get him out of here. I think there might only be ten minutes before I have to trigger the self-destruct."

Ronon hesitated. He wasn't much of a talker and even if they had all the time in the world, he wouldn't have known what to say. He'd been so wrong about the scientist, and now there was no time at all. What could he possibly say at this moment? "McKay." Ronon stuck out his hand. "It's been an honor serving with you."

"You too, Ronon." The scientist took the big man's hand and gave it a quick shake.

Ronon broke away and ran out the door. He went up the slope and had just reached the top when Sheppard regained consciousness. The colonel fought him, trying to get back to McKay, and Ronon dragged him along, throwing him to the ground behind the pile of rocks that had been excavated to uncover the Ancient lab. Sheppard was cursing him but he ignored the words, holding the colonel down. Then a brilliant flash of light went up, and everything was silent.


	6. Chapter 6

Sheppard sat on the pier, his legs dangling over the edge, watching the sun drop lower in the sky. It had been hours since they returned through the stargate, Elizabeth demanding answers that he couldn't find the words for. He would forever be grateful to Ronon for telling her what had happened. _"Some kind of lab...Ancestors...self-destruct...McKay's dead…"_ Snatches of Ronon's brief report flitted through Sheppard's head, none of it making any sense except the last two words. McKay was gone. Sheppard had lost friends before, good men he trusted with his life, men he would have given his own life for, and he knew the pain and grief that came with such loss, but McKay's death left him with a dread of the future he had never known before. He hadn't lost a friend today. He had lost an essential part of himself, like his legs or his sight. A man can live without legs or sight, but such a lack cannot be ignored. It must be endured every moment-sometimes as a vague awareness all was not well, sometimes brutally dominating the mind when a task that once could be performed easily required adjustments to compensate for what was missing. How was he going to live without that arrogant annoying presence in his life, that solid wall to lean upon, that brilliant mercurial mind that was such a perfect match for his own?

McKay came down the pier and sat next to Sheppard. "What are you doing out here? You don't even have any beer."

"I didn't want anything," said Sheppard dully.

"Are you okay? You don't look so good."

The colonel shook his head. "Why wouldn't I be okay? We saved the world today, right? Saved a whole planet. You did, anyway. Then you died."

"I _died_? Oh, wait a minute. You think I'm a ghost." McKay reached over and grabbed him by the shoulder. "Does that feel like a ghost?" There was no response and he shook Sheppard. "Does it?" Sheppard still stared out at the water and McKay got up and pulled him to his feet. "That's it. I'm taking you to Beckett."

Sheppard pushed back automatically, his hands gripping McKay's arms. "I saw you die."

"No, you saw an explosion," said McKay.

"But…" Sheppard closed his eyes. "You couldn't have gotten away. You set off the explosion manually."

"Yes, I did, and I might add that I detonated the self-destruct at precisely the correct moment. There is no trace of the toxin." McKay reached into his pocket and pulled out a small green device. It was a personal defence shield identical to the one McKay had used once before. "I finished the calculations and I was just waiting for that last minute to pass before I hit the button and I started looking through the lab."

"You were about to die and you went digging in the Ancient stuff?"

"Maybe you're perfectly calm when you're about to blow up but I was nervous! Anyway, I found this and I activated it with one second to spare." McKay waved a hand. "Hardly even exciting."

The colonel suddenly felt dizzy and had to hold onto his friend for a moment. "So you're not dead?"

"That's what I've been saying, isn't it?" McKay tossed the personal shield up in his hand and caught it. "Considering the kind of work they were doing, I'm surprised there wasn't a crate full of these things, but this is the only one I found and the explosion drained it completely. It's useless now."

Sheppard took a deep breath, his head clearing. "It served its purpose."

McKay smiled a little. "I guess it did. You ready to go back yet? I don't want to rush you or anything, but I haven't eaten for hours. I've been looking for you since I came back through the gate. Ronon said you were pretty upset."

"Yeah, I think I could eat." They started back, walking side by side down the pier, and Sheppard ventured, "So are you and Ronon good now?"

"Well, I don't know about _good_ ," said McKay thoughtfully, "but I think he may see me as not completely useless now."

 _Epilogue:_

 _McKay was muttering to himself, alternating between two computers, when Ronon walked in and leaned against the table._

 _"Ronon, I'm busy now. What do you want?"_

 _"Let's go spar."_

 _McKay sat back, staring at Ronon. "Excuse me?"_

 _The big man leaned forward. "You heard me." McKay seemed at a loss for words and Ronon took advantage of the rare occurrence. "I know you've got our backs with this science stuff. I just want to teach you some moves so you can take care of yourself better, in case I can't get to you right away when there's trouble."_

 _Their eyes locked. "Think of it as another way I've got your back, McKay."_

 _"But I've got all this work to do…"_

 _McKay gulped as Ronon patted him on the shoulder. "Come on. It'll be fun."_

 _The scientist got reluctantly to his feet. "Okay, but promise to go easy on me."_

 _Ronon chuckled. "No promises."_


End file.
